Disclaimer: Wicked is not mine. Yeah. Just in case there was any question. Now, Fiyeraba (the person), Grinnie, and Toj's extended family belong to me. But other than that, pure Gregory Maguire ownership. -LostOzian
The barn was large and slightly stuffy, but was comforting to Fiyeraba and Grinnie. They lay back in a haystack beneath the loft, taking the weight off their feet. Oz, if felt good to sit. Fiyeraba snuggled down in the straw, feeling it cushion around her as she marveled at what she had just discovered.
My father is the Scarecrow…My father is the Scarecrow of Oz… She smiled at the bottom of the loft. If only Toj knew… She took a pinch of straw and sprinkled in on her face, smiling at the light touch. Toj stared at them, not sure what he should do.
"Uh…I'll bring you food," he said awkwardly. "Don't move." Fiyeraba snorted.
"Little chance of that," Fiyeraba watched as Toj left the barn, thinking of how his life was different from hers. He was at home, with his family and his own delusions of eventually owning the farm. Fiyeraba never really had a home, when she thought about it. Helene had loved and cared for her like a mother, and Fiyeraba had loved her for that, but she knew it wasn't her true home. Her real home, with Elphaba and Fiyero. Maybe that's why she wanted to find them so badly.
Because there's no place like home… Fiyeraba thought as she fell asleep without realizing it.
A four-year-old Fiyeraba hugged the aging blanket she was found in around her tighter, stumbling down the hallway steps. The cold of the storm nipped at her toes, but Fiyeraba knew she had to count herself lucky. In this side of the City, there were plenty who were spending this stormy night outside, exposed to the weather's miserable wrath.
She caught sight of lightning outside of a thin window, stopping briefly. What was it like to be a lightning bolt? To just have one moment of brilliance, and then die? Did lightning bolts really die, or did they just go away for a while until they were needed to jump from the clouds again? The lightning puzzle added to Fiyeraba's confusion as she continued down the stairs and opened Helene's door.
"Helene?" her small voice was almost lost in the blackness. "Helene?" The matron's bed frame creaked, a signal she had turned over.
"What is it, my child?" Fiyeraba took a few steps forward, facing the figure in the bed. There was something she needed to tell her about.
"I'm not your child," Fiyeraba began, trying to bring the feeling back. "Because you're not my mother… are you?" Helene pulled aside the blankets, making room for Fiyeraba to climb in with her, but the small child insisted on remaining standing.
"I was found…wasn't I?" Fiyeraba gathered up the excess material on the ground and double layered her oversized baby blanket around her thin shoulders. It was so confusing; this was the first time she had ever felt something like this. "In this blanket."
"Yes, my child," Helene reached out one hand to touch Fiyeraba's cheek. Her wrinkled hand felt warm against her cold face, but Fiyeraba clutched the blanket tighter, trying to bring back what she had felt in it in the middle of the night. It was something… something special.
Fiyeraba stood there for a minute, trying to find the feeling in the old cloth again, but could only feel little echoes, so small they almost weren't there.
"Climb in, Fiyeraba." Helene said. "You and the bed are just getting colder if I leave the covers off." Abandoning the blanket, Fiyeraba joined the matron, spooning against the older woman's body.
"I was found," Fiyeraba repeated, the warmth of Helene's bed chasing away the sorrow of not being able to find the feeling again. "How was I found?" Helene began stroking the back of Fiyeraba's head, brushing the thin black hair into place.
"It was a night like tonight," Helene began. "A strange woman approached my door and insisted she couldn't keep you. She told me three things. One, that I should never take away the gold necklace; two, that you may only be troublesome when you were angry; and three," Helene wrapped one arm around Fiyeraba's skinny body. "That I should always love you.
"She disappeared before she could tell me your name. The Emerald City Police questioned me about who she was, but I had never seen her before. After they left, I named you after your father, but added on a few letters for originality." Fiyeraba picked at the gold chain she always kept around her neck, pulling until the heavy pendant rested in her small hand.
"Fiyero Tiggular. 29th of April, fourth Year of the Wizard. May his land prosper forever," Fiyeraba read from memory. Helene shifted beside her.
"Who taught you to read that?" she asked. Fiyeraba blinked, long-awaited sleep finally returning.
"I…taught myself," Fiyeraba said. "If it belonged to my father, I… thought I should know how to read it."
"Impressive, Fiyeraba," Helene said. "You're a very gifted girl, you know that, right?" Fiyeraba didn't respond, reaching for her blanket before she finally fell asleep. Maybe the blanket would make her dream of the feeling again.
"Fiyeraba…Fiyeraba, wake up!" Fiyeraba's eyes fluttered open. Grinnie was shaking her shoulder, smiling at her. "Toj brought food!" Fiyeraba sat up, picking bits of straw out of her hair. Toj was staring at them, arms full with a loaf of bread, several apples, and a wedge of cheese. Fiyeraba took the relative feast and started dividing everything up, giving Grinnie the larger pieces and odd apple. I promised to feed her.
"Where are you from?" Toj sat down on the barn floor, cross-legged. Grinnie bit into one of the apples ravenously, not waiting to eat or answer his question.
"Tha Em'ral Cithy," she said, taking another bite. Toj wrinkled his forehead.
"Grinnie, don't talk with your mouth full," Fiyeraba reminded, showing a bit more restraint in eating. "She means the Emerald City." Toj's eyes widened in amazement.
"The Emerald City? With Lady Glinda the Good?" Grinnie nodded; proud she had some great story to impress him with.
"We met her! She's really nice!" Fiyeraba almost choked on a piece of apple. Nice… She thought angrily. She tried to keep me from going after my mother…
"I've always wanted to meet Lady Glinda," Toj said. "Do you see her often? Because you live in the City where she is…"
"No," Grinnie said, beginning to slow down eating. "Sometimes one of the older children would find a magazine with her picture in it. We'd all fight over how many times we get to read it." Fiyeraba glanced at Grinnie, feigning that she wasn't interested, as Toj pondered her statement.
"Older children?" he asked. "How many are in your family?" Fiyeraba decided this was her turn to answer, especially since she had counted barely a day ago.
"There are forty-seven of us, ranging from fifteen to four, with three babies, all younger than two." Fiyeraba rattled off. "Helene's our mother."
"How can one woman have fifty children so close in ages?" Toj said. Fiyeraba rolled her eyes.
"We're orphans. We lived in a home with fifty orphans and Matron Helene as our mother. Right now we're trying to find my birth-mother."
"All by yourselves?" Fiyeraba nodded slowly, trying to think of some explanation.
"Yeah," she said, and was about to continue when the barn door slid open. A squat man that looked a lot like an older version of Toj was standing in the doorway. Fiyeraba's mind was racing. His father. An adult. He'd know we're the little witches.
"TOJ!" the man bellowed, running forward at an impressive speed and pulling Fiyeraba and Grinnie out of the straw roughly. The only thing Fiyeraba could do was grab the broom. Though fat chance of flying off with Lead Grip hanging on to me…
"What do you think you were doing!?" the man continued to shout at Toj. "These two are the Little Wicked Witches wanted by Lady Glinda!" The three children looked at one another in shock.
So Glinda made us into wanted criminals? Fiyeraba thought ruefully. Wonderful...
"They…they're wicked?" Toj stammered, looking between Fiyeraba and Grinnie. Other people, no doubt more of Toj's family, entered the barn to find out what the commotion was.
"Two girls?"
"The Little Witches!"
"In our barn?"
"How?"
"Toj, how did they end up in our barn?" Toj started to look around at his family in a panic, stammering incoherent syllables.
"Eh…ah…I… I was going to trap them!" he declared at last. Fiyeraba stared at him.
"No you weren't!" Fiyeraba kicked at Toj's father, but the solid man hefted her higher by the collar on her frock, out of range. "You offered for us to stay, you brought us food, you let me stand on Scarecrow's Pole-" The last accusation brought cries of shock from Toj's family. The farm boy shook his head furiously.
"I only let you stay to trap you!" he shouted, sounding like an weaker version of his father. "And you're lying about Scarecrow's Pole! You're just a liar!" Fiyeraba stopped struggling. Toj had let them into his barn, given them food, maybe even been their friend, and now he was denying everything because his family would disapprove.
"And now you're caught because of my plan!" Toj declared, looking around to his relatives for appreciation. He was not disappointed. An older and younger woman, one maybe his mother, hugged him tightly.
"Such a smart boy!" one was cooing to him. Toj looked down, avoiding looking at either girl in his father's grasp. He made that up! Fiyeraba thought. He made up that he had a plan so he wouldn't get in trouble!
"What should we do with them?" One of the Vixerlis said. Toj's father looked from Grinnie to Fiyeraba.
"That one's a cripple," he passed Grinnie off to the other man with little effort. Fiyeraba made a lunge for Grinnie's hand only to have Toj's father tighen his grip. "This one may put up a fight."
"Yes, but where should we take them? They could be dangerous," the man held Grinnie by the arms, her legs swinging uselessly. Fiyeraba could see tears welling up in her eyes.
"The Tin Man!" One of the women said. "The Tin Man can keep them until Lady Glinda can be told of their capture!" The Vixerlis agreed to this, and the two men started off. Fiyeraba started to panic, punching and kicking until Toj's father flung her over his shoulder.
The Tin Man. One of her mother's would-be-murderers. What would he do to her, the daughter of said Witch? Would she even be able to continue searching once she was in his metal grasp? She needed a plan.
All she could do was think as the two Vixerli men carried her and Grinnie away.
